I'm single at the moment, but I have a longstanding tradition of watching horror films on Valentines Day which all my BFs have enthusiastically joined in with - if Valentine themed, even better!

Wow, I've never met anyone else who does that!! That's been my tradition for a good decade -- chocolate, Chinese food, and classic horror movies. Last year, two of my friends joined me, and they had so much fun they're joining me again this year.

And Seraphia, I'm glad to hear the Feast of St. Markdown's is catching on!

I love to hear about all of the unconventional ways that everyone celebrates. We don't celebrate it per se. But if it falls on a day that I'm off work, or I see something special at the grocery store, I will make a special dinner, or dessert. But it is made for the whole family, because they are all the loves of my life. My favorite one, though was a couple years back, four of my kids (one was away at college) decided to make a restaurant at home. DH and I were instructed to arrive at the same time, so we had to sync our schedules. When we got to the door, we were escorted to our dining room table that was laid out with flowers, special dishes and glass ware. We were given homemade menus for appetizers and we could order however many we wanted. We had sweet tea to drink (it's the house wine of choice). we were given the soup/salad menu and were told that we were getting soup AND salad. We had a choice of the main entree and sides......and the DESSERTS! my daughter must have spent all day baking.....cookies, cupcakes, sheet cake, cobbler, ice cream (she didn't make that, lol) chocolate pie, you name it.... oh it was such fun

But DH knows not to spend money on me for that day. We plan our own celebrations on days that mean somthing to US.

I love Valentine's Day because I like to view it as a celebration of all types of love, but I hate all the "traditional" ways of celebrating. The romantic restaurants are all too crowded, I'm picky about chocolate, and I dislike roses. So this year I'm continuing my long-standing tradition of eating pizza on the couch in my pajamas while watching a movie. It's going to be awesome.

I almost forgot! The pizza place near me does a heart-shaped pizza for Valentine's Day. I know what I'm having for dinner that night, and it's MINE, ALL MINE!!

Help me to keep strong, EHell! There's a family get-together in the offing and as I said after Christmas I am NOT going to plan things, shop, clean, cook etc and THEN be told at the last minute 'oh, we've changed our minds about what we want to do...' As far as I know, they have planned nothing - at least, if they've planned anything, nobody's told us - but I am NOT ringing people up to find out/making plans/suggesting that I'll do this and that. If somebody wants me to arrange something, they have to use their words to tell me.

hubby has strict instructions that he is not to buy flowers for me for valentines, i'd rather wait a week and get some at the normal price

We're of the same mind. Valentine's Day has always been a non-starter for us. We might get each other funny cards, if we can find them. Otherwise, our sole concessions to the day are to lay in a good bottle of wine a week ahead and cook up some fresh salmon or tuna at home for dinner.

It may not be terribly romantic but we're not into what a friend calls 'Hallmark Holidays'. We've been married for 30plus years and don't need to spend a fortune to remind us that we love each other.

And Seraphia, I'm glad to hear the Feast of St. Markdown's is catching on!

What's wonderful is that unlike other holidays, there is more than one Feast of St. Markdown's every year. There's one after Christmas, one after Valentine's Day and another one right after Mother's Day! Sometimes Easter too.

And Seraphia, I'm glad to hear the Feast of St. Markdown's is catching on!

What's wonderful is that unlike other holidays, there is more than one Feast of St. Markdown's every year. There's one after Christmas, one after Valentine's Day and another one right after Mother's Day! Sometimes Easter too.

And Halloween!

Logged

"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends" - Harry Potter

And Seraphia, I'm glad to hear the Feast of St. Markdown's is catching on!

What's wonderful is that unlike other holidays, there is more than one Feast of St. Markdown's every year. There's one after Christmas, one after Valentine's Day and another one right after Mother's Day! Sometimes Easter too.

And Halloween!

*Headsmack!*

Of course! How could I have forgotten the biggest bonanza of them all?

The last few years we go to the asian restaurant on our way home from work for their valentine special. It is actually cheaper than two evening meals and you get a dessert. Works perfectly for us!We have also done the heart shaped pizzas.Refuse to go out and pay for over priced meals and hate getting overpriced flowers.

I have extremely neutral feelings towards Valentine's Day. I don't find anything about it particularly objectionable (and think some things people traditionally do are cute or sweet). But there's also nothing particularly compelling about it for me, either. It's just never made it high on my list of holidays I'm willing to devote any energy to.

So I was actually kind of glad when it worked out that the best time for my husband and I to get married was the end of February. It's a good two weeks after Valentine's Day, so if we want to go out for a nice dinner to celebrate our anniversary, we don't have a thousand times more competition for that goal than usual. But it's also close enough that I can use it as my reason for doing nothing in particular on Valentine's Day. I don't always feel the need to explain myself when people ask what I'm doing and my answer is "meh, nothing really." But it is nice to be able to say, "Oh, my anniversary is in a couple of weeks, so we just celebrate that instead."

One thing I might start doing, though, is sending cards or little bits of candy to my niece and nephew. I like the idea of asking them to be my Valentine, and I always appreciated gestures like that from the adults in my life when I was a kid. I think that would be a super fun way to celebrate the holiday.

For years I gave DH "permission" to be on call on the 14th. Everyone else was grateful. It wasn't a big deal for us as we've had a monthly date night for 30 years. Sometimes we went out the night afterwards when we could relax in the quiet.

For one memorable year, I had a month-long running bet with a friend that was Valentine's Day themed and then I spent the 14th making the baked goods to settle the debt - I lost .

Usually, I try to send my friends something, this year a $5 starbucks card since I can't take them out for coffee in person as we are scattered about the country now. My mom usually sends me cat & valentine's day themed socks in February and then Halloween socks in October. I hope she remembers this year too It's really cold and I could use em!